


Living Hope

by RinRynRen



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, WB: The Garden of Life from Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 04:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinRynRen/pseuds/RinRynRen
Summary: When Nara Shikako died in the middle of the desert, and came back to life by releasing a god, the desert wasn't the only thing that was given new life.





	Living Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarOfTime](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarOfTime/gifts).



If someone had told her a week ago that there would be hope for her country—real, actual hope in a physical form—in this place, she would have at the very least sent them to the hospital in a spar.

But now, standing at the edge of a cliff and looking out over what was supposed to be desert and instead seeing green, seeing leaves, seeing water...well. It certainly changed a lot.

What used to be a barren land beyond anything that the desert should produce was now teaming with more life than any other place in the Land of Wind. Even after hours of experiencing this, Temari still almost didn’t believe it was possible, and she certainly didn’t begrudge the way that the reinforcements from Suna were touching the leaves with downright reverence.

And they hadn’t even seen the birth of this place. Even from this distance, Temari could still make out the location of that strange temple where Nara had died and merged with some kind of land kami, according to what she had told Gaara. Gaara, who was somehow, impossibly, friends with Nara and Uzumaki, who had been given this garden as a gift.

The garden had been created with the lifeblood of Hidden Leaf’s ninja. Even though it lay inside Wind, Suna didn’t have the strength to truly contest it if the other village decided to make a claim on the garden. Instead, Nara had implicitly handed any claim on the garden to Gaara, and while it didn’t make any logical sense, Temari knew that the other kunoichi was going to make sure that Hidden Leaf wouldn’t challenge that claim.

The soft shushing of sand announced Gaara’s presence approaching from behind her, and Temari turned slightly to acknowledge him, still somewhat amazed that he was more than just barely tolerating her existence. In turn, he tipped his head to her in a slight nod before turning his attention to the greenery below.

“It is a great gift,” Gaara said quietly, almost lost to the wind. “But the price was almost too high.”

Temari shot her youngest brother a quick look. Things were better now between them, so much better that it was almost indescribable, but...she wasn’t quite at the point where she was willing to criticize him.

No matter what he thought, if Nara had died while creating this garden—wait. No. If Nara had died, they wouldn’t even _have_ the garden to try and fight Hidden Leaf for the rights to. They would, probably, be dead, given the way that the girl—a powerful sensor and rising seal mistress—had been reacting to the area.

And even then, she could almost understand where he was coming from. Uzumaki and Nara had been the first people who had believed in her monster of a brother, and the way that the other Leaf nin had just followed their lead had been impressive. Those two, along with their teammate, were absolutely going to be deeply important in the future, she just knew it. Given the way that the two of them, with Nara’s twin following their lead, had made the decision to give up control of the garden to them, they probably already were.

In light of that, Gaara was right. If Nara had died here, then no matter what this place could give them, it would still not make it worth it, not if Nara’s death destroyed Gaara, and destroyed the trust that was somehow building between Uzumaki and Gaara. The trust that was already changing Suna for the better.

Temari turned back to the view, and said nothing.

***

Temari leaned back in her chair and scrubbed her hand over her face. As annoying as it was to have to wait for the Chunin Exams to get the promotion that she more than deserved, at this point she was almost delieriously happy to have an excuse to get out of the village for a while and get away from the paperwork.

The Garden of Life from Death might be the best thing to happen to Suna in the entire history of the village, but it was so much work. (Sometimes Temari wondered darkly if the reason that Nara had given up control of the garden was because the genius girl knew how much work it would be and decided not to bother. It would certainly fit into what she knew of that clan.) And somehow both Kankurou and Gaara had managed to get out of being in charge of the mess, despite the fact that they were both just as involved in the incident as she was.

Of course, Kankurou was almost swallowed whole buy the puppet brigade, and last time she had actually seen him he was in the middle of detoxing from another round of poison immunity buildup. And Gaara was aiming to become the next Kazekage, and had not only pulled Elder Chiyo back into the village to be the temporary head, but was constantly busy shadowing her to learn the role, when he wasn’t out on missions as the one man army that was needed to defend the borders.

Temari got up from the desk and walked away from the massive piles of paperwork clogging up the space. The office that she was working in had a view of the village market, and it was incredible to see what a difference there was after even a few months of having the Garden impacting the village. Colors were vibrant and everywhere, instead of the mostly brown with a few faded colors that Temari had grown up with. There was so much more food available, more variety, more everything.

The Garden even still had a mine, and despite the trepidation that the three of them who had been there at the creation of the Garden felt at the thought of going back into the ground there, nothing that had come out of it had seemed off. She was fairly sure that Kankurou had collected a few pieces and secreted them away in his puppets, and had a dark suspicion that he was intending to have Nara look over them if there was ever an opportunity, and she wasn’t even sure if that was a bad idea.

The Garden provided vast amounts of food and fresh water, and the simple ease of access to those things that had always been more of a struggle meant that now the people of Suna had more time and the ability to spend on crafts. There were new scents and perfumes in the air. The wood carvers had new woods to experiment with, and there were ever increasing numbers of new carvings and creations to buy.

The Garden hadn’t just brought life into the desert. It had also brought new life into a fading village, and no matter how wary Temari might still be about her brother’s strange alliance with Hidden Leaf, if this was the kind of thing that was going to be the result of it, she was never going to complain about it.

They might still be the weakest of the five major villages, but their power was only growing. Soon, very soon, they would start exporting from the Garden, selling the gemstones and the plant products that they had begun to create from the plants there. They were already starting to really build a tourism base, people starting to come looking to tour the Garden. Monks from the Wind temple had been among the first to come and see it, and it seemed that they were starting to send brothers from temples in the other countries by as well. Following after them were citizens from Wind, deeply reverent at the existence of the Garden, and soon there would be citizens from the other elemental nations coming as well.

Yes, Suna was doing very well, now. It was, truly, awe inspiring.

This was what living hope could do. In the wake of it, Temari could only be excited for the future to come.


End file.
